Dr. Charles Drew, an expert in the field of blood research, graduated from Amherst College in Massachusetts in 1926, and received the Mossman Trophy for bringing honor to the school during his four-year stay there. Besides being an honor student, he was star halfback on the football team and captain of the track team.

After receiving his medical degree from McGill University in Montreal, Dr. Drew returned to Washington, D.C., the place of his birth, to teach pathology at Howard University. In 1940, while studying for his doctor of science degree at Columbia University, Dr. Drew wrote a dissertation on banked blood, or plasma. A widely acknowledged expert in this field, he was called to supervise the successful collection of 14,500 pints of plasma in Europe over a period of five months. Upon his return to the United States in 1941, Dr. Drew was appointed director of the first American Red Cross Blood Bank and director of blood procurement for the National Research Council.

Besides his other accomplishments, Dr. Drew was medical director and professor of surgery at Howard University's Freedmen's Hospital. During his nine-year tenure, he trained more than half of the nation's black surgeons to qualify and receive certification by the American Board of Surgery. Dr. Drew also received the NAACP's Springarn Medal in 1946 and, posthumously in 1952, the Distinguished Service Award of the National Medical Association.